“The Seeds of Doom” is the last adventure of the thirteenth season of “Doctor Who” classic series, which aired in 1976. It follows “The Brain of Morbius” and it’s a six parts adventure written by Robert Banks Stewart and directed by Douglas Camfield.

The story

A scientific expedition to Antarctica discovers a strange pod buried in the ice. When it’s brought to the base, the expedition botanist starts studying it and send photographs to London. There, the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) sees it and recognizes the extraterrestrial nature of the pod. He also realizes that it can be very dangerous.

At the Antarctic base, the pod is growing while in England millionaire Harrison Chase is informed of its existence. Obsessed by plants, he pays people to go to pick up the pod but now it has developed into a kind of plant that attacks one of the scientists and causes in him the beginning of a metamorphosis. The Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) arrive to Antarctica too late and can’t even prevent Chase’s men from stealing a second pod.

Extras

This DVD is rich in extras. There are typical contents such as production subtitles, a gallery of pictures from this adventure, the Radio Times Billings and a promo of the “Doctor Who” DVDs soon to be published.

There are various comments in the adventure alternative audio track by protagonist Tom Baker, actors John Challis, Kenneth Gilbert and Michael McStay, producer Philip Hinchcliffe, writer Robert Banks Stewart, designer Roger Murray-Leach and the director’s son Jogg Camfield.

Isolated Score. The option to watch this adventure with the musical soundtrack in an isolated track.

Podshock. A documentary about 37 minutes long about the production of this adventure.

Now and Then. A comparison of how a few places where this adventure was filmed looked at the time compared to what they look like today.

Playing in the Green Cathedral. Composer Geoffrey Burgon talks about his contribution to this adventure through his music.

So What Do You Do Exactly? Graeme Harper was a production assistant for this adventure and was later director of other adventures of “Doctor Who” classic series and the new series as well. For this reason, he knows exactly the various tasks and explains them in this brief extra.

Stripped For Action: The Fourth Doctor. The comics with the Fourth Doctor. An extra interesting especially for comic books fans.

Trails and Continuity. A series of BBC announcements of that time connected to this adventure.

Douglas Camfield’s Paper Edit. Douglas Camfield’s notes for the compilation of the repeats of some adventures in 1976 in PDF format.

There are also two “Easter eggs” but nothing particularly interesting.

Originally, the 13th “Doctor Who” season was supposed to end with the adventure “The Hand of Fear” but, as sometimes happened in a production in which it was normal for things to be done at the eleventh hour, various problems caused a change of plans. Eventually, writer Robert Banks Stewart was asked to quickly write another six-part adventure that became “The Seeds of Doom”.

At the time, six-part adventures were divided into two interconnected stories and generally the first was composed of four parts and the second of two parts. In the case of “The Seeds of Doom” the structure is the opposite, with the first story set in Antarctica composed of two parts and the second set in England composed of four parts.

Robert Banks Stewart lived near Kew Gardens, a complex of greenhouses and gardens near London and got inspired by them for the base theme of his story. “The Seeds of Doom” also contains inspirations to various stories containing science fiction elements. The result is therefore not exactly original.

The story set in Antarctica is inspired by the movie “The Thing from Another World”, the first adaptation of by John W. Campbell Jr. novella “Who Goes There?”. The second story contains inspirations to the mini-series “The Quatermass Experiment” but also to “The Avengers” episode “Man-Eater of Surrey Green”.

The various elements that inspired Robert Banks Stewart were well suited to a “Doctor Who” adventure of that period of gothic horror stories. The alien pods found in Antarctica can completely transform a human being who comes into contact with them, with potentially catastrophic results for the whole Earth.

From the beginning, we see the Doctor’s concern when he realizes the nature of the alien pods. In “The Seeds of Doom” there are still some typical over the top behaviors by the Fourth Doctor but in general he’s very serious and determined to eliminate the alien threat. This helps to give the audience a strong sense of threat that increases tension.

It’s impossible to maintain a constant tension in such a long adventure but in “The Seeds of Doom” it’s present for most of the time and this is already an excellent result. However, there are some silly moments, especially those with Amelia Ducat and the weird music played by Harrison Chase seems almost a parody of “The Abominable Dr. Phibes”.

In general, however, a certain level of tension is maintained, also thanks to a pace faster than the one typical of the adventures of the classic “Doctor Who” series. In “The Seeds of Doom” there’s a lot of action and the characters moving around, which typically was used to fill some time, is often made by moments dangerous to the protagonists and that helps to maintain the tension.

“The Seeds of Doom” is enhanced by a couple of good characters well played. Harrison Chase, the millionaire obsessed with plants, besides a few moments seems almost rational. Scorby, his chief henchman, is well developed so he turns out to be much more than a trivial brute good only to perform any act of violence he’s ordered.

The transformation of the human beings manages to be convincing despite the limitations of the special effects. One of the costumes was recycled from “The Claws of Axos”, painted green to look like a plant. A good direction exalted what was good in the costumes and the available special effects hiding most of their flaws.

For these reasons, “The Seeds of Doom” is considered a “Doctor Who” classic. Honestly I think it’s a bit over-rated because not everything works perfectly. For example, UNIT, at its last appearance in the 70s, without its usual members, starting with Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, has a much smaller impact. Beyond these flaws it’s still a very good quality adventure.

The double DVD is high level with many extras generally interesting, especially if you also like comic books. Overall, I think it’s a must-have for fans but I also recommend it to those who have a more generic interest for “Doctor Who”.